Ramanujacharya – Biography - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

The inner temple room, encircled by the first ring ofwalls and crowned with a high tower, was completed in twoyears. Thousands of builders were engaged to take part inthe construction, but even so it took four years to completethe next ring of walls and apartments, six years for thesecond, eight years for the third, ten years for the fourth,twelve years for the fifth, and eighteen years for thesixth. In all it took sixty years to complete theconstruction of the temple, and by this time Tirumangai wasover eighty years old.After the construction of the inner temple, kingsbegan to send money to Tirumangai of their own accord,convinced now that he was a genuine devotee. Moreover, hewas now the leader of a gang of over one thousand robbersand other wealthy landowners gave money liberally to assistwith the work, fearing that all of their property wouldotherwise be plundered. Despite all this, Tirumangai stilllived the simple life of a devotee, eating only once a dayprasadam cooked by his own hand and prepared from food heobtained by begging. He would also ensure that all thepeople in that area never suffered for want of food -onlythe rich lived in fear of the sage Tirumangai.THE ROBBERS' ANGERNow that all seven walls of the temple werecompleted, Tirumangai generously rewarded all thearchitects. After making this payment there was not a pennyleft in the treasury. At that time the host of robbers, whohad been his accomplices, came to him to demand their shareof the wealth they had plundered. Tirumangai thought forsome time about the robbers' demands, and, finding no way hecould pay them, he consulted with his disciple NirmalNadappan in a secluded place.In the meantime all the robbers, believing thatTirumangai had cheated them by spending all the money forconstruction of the temple, made a conspiracy to kill theirleader. Just as they were about to put their plans intoeffect, however, Nirmal Nadappan stepped amongst them,saying, "My dear brothers, somewhere hidden along thenorthern bank of the Kaveri there is a large amount oftreasure belonging to our master. Look, here is a boat; Iwill take you to that place where the treasure is hidden,and then we can divide it among ourselves."The robbers happily agreed to this proposal, and allgot aboard a large boat that had been used to carry blocksof stone for the temple. It was the rainy season, and themonsoon had swollen the Kaveri into a mighty flow over amite wide. The day was drawing to a close, and dark cloudsbegan to blot out the light of the setting sun. AsTirumangai and his three other disciples stood on the islandof Sri Rangam, they could only faintly discern the outline61